Morocco’s commercial transactions with Europe reached 451.9 billion dirhams for the past year, marking a drop of 11.5% compared to 2019, according to the Exchange Office.

Despite this decline, more than 90% of which comes from the European Union (EU), Europe remains Morocco’s leading trade partner with a share of 66% in total trade in 2020 against 65.8% a year earlier, said the Exchange Office in its 2020 annual report on foreign trade. The Kingdom’s trade declined with the majority of European countries, in particular with its main partner countries, namely Spain (-12.4%), France (-11.6%) and Italy (- 15.2%).

Conversely, trade with Russia, Ukraine and Denmark recorded respective increases of 9.4%, 15.2% and 26.2%. Representing 17.1% of total transactions, trade with Asia fell by 10.9%, said the Office, attributing this decline in large part (94%) to the decrease in trade with the United Arab Emirates (-3.9 billion dirhams) and Saudi Arabia (-3.3 billion dirhams), India (-1.6 billion dirhams), Singapore (-1.5 billion dirhams), the Republic of Korea (-1.5 billion dirhams) and Japan (-1.5 billion dirhams). Conversely, China, which ranks first among Asian partner countries with a share of 46% of trade with Asia, posts a growth of 2.7% in 2020, underlined the same source. At the same time, trade with America fell by 10.3%, mainly attributable to the decline in trade with the United States (-24.3%), Mexico (-34.8%) and Argentina (-0.9 billion dirhams).

The 27.8% increase in trade with Brazil partially offset the reduction in trade with other countries in America.